New York bicycle hire works like London and Paris, but more expensive

A 30-minute trip is free for subscribers, but a 5-hour rental is $97.

Come July, 600 cycle stations will open for business across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Citi Bike

Come July, some 10,000 bicycles adorned with the electric blue corporate livery of international banking giant Citibank will be available for hire from 600 stations distributed with impressive uniformity across the New York boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The scheme is closely modeled on those of London and Paris, though New Yorkers will be asked to pay significantly more money for an equivalent service.

If you're intending to launch a cycle rental scheme in a major international city, July is the month you do it. Paris' Vélib' hire scheme (Vélib' being a useful portmanteau of the French words for bicycle and freedom) launched on July 15 2007, and three years later London followed suit with its Barclays Cycle Hire scheme (a name that needs no explanation, though its syllable-count may in part explain the propensity of Londoners to refer to the things as Boris bikes after the Mayor who saw them in). It comes as no surprise, then, that New York's Citi Bikes, as they're called, will also launch during peak summer, when the chances are slimmest that bad weather will deter curious first-timers.

Inner-city bicycle-hire schemes are by no means rare, of course. Wikipedia lists about 180 such schemes across the Americas, Asia, Australia and, of course, Europe, which is positively littered with them. But as for schemes that make a significant contribution to urban transportation in major cities, it's a rather different story. Filter schemes by those with at least a four-figure bicycle count, and you're down to 27 cities. London's 8,000 bikes, New York's 10,000 and Paris' 18,000 see their schemes comfortably into the top four in terms of size, though they're dwarfed by the 60,000-plus "HZ Bikes" of Hangzhou, China.

Physically, Citi Bikes are nearly identical to Boris Bikes right down to the bells if not the whistles, both supply contracts having been awarded to Canadian firm Devinci following its work on the Montreal's Bixi system, upon which the London and New York schemes are molded. Thus the three-speed Citi Bikes (or Bloom' Bikes, perhaps?) come equipped with the same sturdy aluminum-alloy frames, adjustable saddles, front-mounted luggage rack, dynamo-driven LED lights, and nitrogen-filled tires (among the advantages of which is slower deflation in the event of a puncture–for the tire, if not the cyclist).

Surprising price structure

And like London's scheme, price structure is based very closely on the Parisian Vélib'. Access to the Citi Bikes comes courtesy of a 24-hour, one-day, or one-year subscription. This theoretically grants free access to users provided they keep journeys under 30 minutes. Above that, additional fees are payable. As in London and Paris these fees climb steeply for longer trips in an attempt to encourage short hops and thus higher cycle turnover and availability. Though a sub-30 minute trip is free, a journey of between 90 and 120 minutes will cost $25, and every half-hour after the two-hour mark costs $12.

This sharp rise in pricing has raised an eyebrow or two (at Gothamist, for instance), and though the sharply rising journey prices borrow from the Vélib' model, longer trips on Citi Bikes in New York will cost more than they would in Paris or London. An 80-minute cycle that would cost €3 in Paris or £4 in London will cost $13 in New York. Increase that to five hours and New Yorkers will pay $97 to a Parisian's €31 or a Londoner's £35–and this is without accounting for subscription fees.

But how likely are five-hour journeys? About the farthest possible trip in London is east-west from Island Gardens in Tower Hamlets to Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush–a journey of 18.3 km (11.4 miles). In New York (where proposed Citi Bike stations have been mapped) were you to cycle from St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 10th Avenue to Fulton Park, Brooklyn, you'd cover 22.7 km (14.1 miles). Google Maps clocks the latter cycle trip at an hour and 18 minutes, and though the service doesn't calculate cycle times for London, applying the same average speed (about 11 mph) to the London trip gives a journey time of and hour and three minutes. Incidentally, to a day subscriber that's a $13 trip in New York compared to $6.29 in London (and only $3.14 if the cyclists gets lucky with the lights)–that's without accounting for subscription fees. New York's fragmented geography may affect journey times, then, but not by much.

Incidentally, the initial area of New York covered by the Citi Bike scheme is nearly identical to that currently served in London: an area approximately 45 sq km (17 sq miles). With 600 stations to London's 570, the density of stations in New York will be about the same (at approximately 13 stations per sq km).

A map of cycle journey times from Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan. The outer circle marks the 20-minute boundary.

If longer journeys are atypical, it's arguably the subscription rates that matter most, and it is perhaps here that New Yorkers have cause to feel aggrieved–especially casual users. The $95 annual subscription, though significantly more than Vélib' at €29 (about $37), is in the same ballpark as a Boris Bike annual subscription of £45 ($71). The Citi Bike website points out that this amounts to a mere 26 cents per day. That climbs to 40 cents per day for 48 five-day weeks, but the value to frequent users is clear–especially when one considers that an annual Citi Bike subscription reduces usage rates across the board, including extending free journey times from 30 to 45 minutes.

Enlarge/ Price comparison of the New York, London, and Paris cycle hire schemes. Currency conversions via xe.com as of May 23, 2012

Comparisons are less favorable for one-week subscriptions, with Citi Bike's $25 being more than twice those for either comparable scheme (Boris Bikes offer the best one-week deal at £5 or $7.86). And yet a week's Citi Bike subscription looks like good value next to the $9.95 day subscription–an outlay which would easily cover a week's subscription in London and near as damn it in Paris. A day subscription is £1 (about $1.60) in London and €1.70 ($2.15) in Paris.

Funding models provide no obvious clues as to this discrepancy in pricing, since each of the three schemes required private funding to a greater or less extent to get off the ground. Of the three schemes, London's Barclays Cycle Hire is least reliant on private financing, with Barclays Bank chipping in only £25 million of the scheme's £140 million cost over six years. Though the Citi Bike scheme is wholly private-financed ($41 million from Citibank and $6.5 million from Mastercard), the same is true for Vélib’. That may seem surprising to the casual observer (the bicycles are unbranded in both name and appearance), but outdoor advertising multinational JCDecaux covered the entire startup cost in exchange for a significant proportion of the revenue from Parisian advertisement billboards. As operator, JCDecaux also covers the running costs of the scheme.

Citi Bike investors keen to turn a profit will have scrutinized the schemes of London and Paris. The higher $9.95 day subscription may be an effort to deter vandalism and theft, problems that has dogged Vélib' since day one. In 2009 it was widely reported that a staggering proportion of the original fleet of bicycles, over half, had gone missing, leading JCDecaux's director general, Remi Pheulpin, to label the funding model "unsustainable".

And though a mere 10 weeks after the scheme's launch it was projected that Boris Bikes could turn a profit within three years, Transport for London's David Brown indicated to The Guardian that the £1 day subscription eats into profitability. Though operation of the scheme is currently contracted out to Serco, the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme forms part of a broader transport strategy, and lower prices draw users away from stretched bus and underground networks which operate at a loss.

A problem with both London's and Paris' schemes is a clustering in demand at, for instance, large transportation hubs, making it difficult to pick up or drop off bicycles at particular locations during rush hour. For this reason, the schemes' operators are forced to redistribute bicycles by truck during the day. However, despite these issues Barclays Cycle Hire and Vélib' have been deemed successful enough to warrant expansion. In 2009, Vélib' was extended to 30 municipalities, adding 3300 bicycles and 300 stations. In March of this year London's scheme was expanded by 2,300 bikes and an additional 21 sq km (8.1 square miles).

By usage alone, the schemes of London and Paris are generally deemed successes. According to a JCDecaux press release, Vélib registered its 100 millionth trip last summer, with March of 2011 proving the busiest month to date at that time. The scheme sees between 80,000 and 120,000 trips ever day, and 76 percent of users are annual subscribers. Theft and vandalism are claimed to have fallen significantly in recent years. In its first year, the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme chalked up six million trips. By aping these schemes so closely, Citibank has given itself every chance of success, at least logistically. It just remains to be seen if New Yorkers will stomach the price.

Promoted Comments

I've been using the Bixi system in Montreal (on which all these others are based) for a couple of years. Overall it's pretty slick. The bikes are heavy, but generally decent to drive. The pay structure (encouraging short trips) makes sense, because otherwise people would just grab a bike and keep it the whole day. This way people only take it for the actual journey and drop it off at their destination, and since there are so many stations, you're never more than a block from where you want to go.

However, it's not without its problems.

For one, if you want to use it to commute on a popular route, you likely won't find a bike available, unless you get up early. And when you want to drop it off, you likely won't find an empty dock in which to park it.

There's also a problem with bike migration, where people tend to drive most often in one direction (mostly because of hills). This means there's a fleet of trucks with trailers driving around redistributing the bikes.

I tend to use my own bike for commuting, but grab a Bixi to go out at night or when I don't know when/how I'll be returning.

As a comparison, Bixi costs $80.50 per year or $7 per day, with increasing rates as you use more than 30/45 minutes. Keep in mind that in Montreal, it's only available from about April to November, so you're not getting 365 days/year. My understanding is that it's not nearly enough to break even, so advertising and funding from the city make up the difference.

Eh, seems like typical nyc pricing to me. Looks like they want to encourage longer term use vs daily. Considering the alternatives (Bike & Roll) this seems like a good deal.

nazartp wrote:

Who the hell would want to ride a bike in Manhattan!? Surest way to be killed on the streets.

It's not as bad as you think. I commute to midtown from Brooklyn and there are more than enough bike lanes & dedicated paths to make you feel safe. If you want the shortest route though it does get interesting. It's a pretty nice rush commuting home on 5th ave during rush hour

Looks like DC is cheaper too, we've got 1525+ bikes and 160+ stations for $75 / year for the annual membership. I hardly ever get charged for my ride, as I can get almost anywhere I need to go in less than 30 min, but if I plan on taking an exceptionally long trip and am feeling cheap, I just find a mid-point station, dock and then start a new rental. Takes 30 seconds if you plan ahead.

Looks like DC is cheaper too, we've got 1525+ bikes and 160+ stations for $75 / year for the annual membership. I hardly ever get charged for my ride, as I can get almost anywhere I need to go in less than 30 min, but if I plan on taking an exceptionally long trip and am feeling cheap, I just find a mid-point station, dock and then start a new rental. Takes 30 seconds if you plan ahead.

I've been using the Bixi system in Montreal (on which all these others are based) for a couple of years. Overall it's pretty slick. The bikes are heavy, but generally decent to drive. The pay structure (encouraging short trips) makes sense, because otherwise people would just grab a bike and keep it the whole day. This way people only take it for the actual journey and drop it off at their destination, and since there are so many stations, you're never more than a block from where you want to go.

However, it's not without its problems.

For one, if you want to use it to commute on a popular route, you likely won't find a bike available, unless you get up early. And when you want to drop it off, you likely won't find an empty dock in which to park it.

There's also a problem with bike migration, where people tend to drive most often in one direction (mostly because of hills). This means there's a fleet of trucks with trailers driving around redistributing the bikes.

I tend to use my own bike for commuting, but grab a Bixi to go out at night or when I don't know when/how I'll be returning.

As a comparison, Bixi costs $80.50 per year or $7 per day, with increasing rates as you use more than 30/45 minutes. Keep in mind that in Montreal, it's only available from about April to November, so you're not getting 365 days/year. My understanding is that it's not nearly enough to break even, so advertising and funding from the city make up the difference.

- Apartments in new york are small and not everyone wants a foldable bike- Try getting parking in Manhattan, or even Brooklyn during rush- If you're the victim of multiple bike thefts, renting vs owning can be appealing

This is a complete joke, I have a subscription car service (zipcar) and can understand why people would use it (I don't want to spend 16k for a car that I would rarely use) but I will never understand the point of a bike rental service. Bikes are inexpensive, you can find used ones for $100 (I live in Brooklyn and bought one for $80). Also, those bikes look tacky to say to least. Why would you pay money to provide free advertisement to some bank? I been to Paris and their bikes were just plain silver with no adverts.

I think the city could have made more money by building lots of bike stands and maybe charging for their use (a parking meter for bikes) maybe 25cents a half hour. Bikes may never take root in the city, car traffic is too chaotic and outside of Manhattan the streets are bad and cars drive at high speeds without a care for bicyclist. This means that the average person wouldn't want to ride and the people who like riding in such a crappy environment would have already brought a bicycle.

All Bloomberg seems to do is copy European policies without thinking if they would work here. This is just another example

Versus buying your own bike? No maintenance. If you ride a lot and don't know how to maintain your bike and do basic repairs, you will be very frustrated as well as pay through the nose. And decent bike that fits properly and doesn't need significant repairs for $97? Not a chance here; I doubt the chances are even smaller in NYC. Then there's the risk of the bike being stolen...

Versus renting a car? You don't have to deal with parking. I haven't spent much time in NYC in years, but I'm guessing the parking situation hasn't improved.

Versus buying your own bike? No maintenance. If you ride a lot and don't know how to maintain your bike and do basic repairs, you will be very frustrated as well as pay through the nose. And decent bike that fits properly and doesn't need significant repairs for $97? Not a chance here; I doubt the chances are even smaller in NYC. Then there's the risk of the bike being stolen...

Bikes don't need a lot of maintenance. As long as you spray some wd-40 on the chains and keep your tires hard with air you shouldn't have any problems. If you buy a cheap bike and put some airless solid rubber tires then you will have no maintenance cost (this is what I did). Thieves only steal bikes that are expensive or easy to steal (no u-lock). No one is going to steal a $97 bike.

I ride 9miles every day to and from work as long as it's not snowing using a crappy $80 road bike with solid rubber tires. I haven't put a dime of maintenance into it and it's been going strong for 2 years. I think this bike rental service will lose money or only tourist will use it

To those who say buy a bike, bike theft is a big problem, 97$ a year is optimistic. It is nice not having to worry about it. You also need to commit to using your own bike all day, whereas with bike sharing you can just drop it off and walk whenever you want.

My biggest beef in Toronto at least is that they don't shuffle the bikes enough, the square that the New York system will have them in will inevitably have all the stations on the outskirts full and the inner ones deserted.

Their cell phone app, which is necessary to find a station with spaces, is also a huge piece of crap.

Versus buying your own bike? No maintenance. If you ride a lot and don't know how to maintain your bike and do basic repairs, you will be very frustrated as well as pay through the nose. And decent bike that fits properly and doesn't need significant repairs for $97? Not a chance here; I doubt the chances are even smaller in NYC. Then there's the risk of the bike being stolen...

Versus renting a car? You don't have to deal with parking. I haven't spent much time in NYC in years, but I'm guessing the parking situation hasn't improved.

Rewind. Bike rental is $97 for five hours. You are about to come to Manhattan for 5 days.

Step 1. Go on Craigslist and have your friend pick up 5 bicycles for $97/each.

Step 2. At the end of each day of your trip, if your bike isn't stolen, give a bike to some poor inner city kid.

The massive advantage to these systems is that when you get where you're going, you just dock the bike and walk away. You don't have to find a place to lock it up, you don't have to worry about it being stolen, if you get too drunk to ride home and need to take a taxi you don't have to come back and fetch it, if you're biking to the subway you don't have to bring the bike on the subway with you. Heck, when you get off the subway you can hop on another bike!

Versus renting a car? You don't have to deal with parking. I haven't spent much time in NYC in years, but I'm guessing the parking situation hasn't improved.

Yeah if it hasn't completely changed in the last year, I'd think only a masochist would want to deal with that. Also I'm pretty sure the $97 per day don't include parking fees, which makes that a pretty senseless comparison

Versus renting a car? You don't have to deal with parking. I haven't spent much time in NYC in years, but I'm guessing the parking situation hasn't improved.

Yeah if it hasn't completely changed in the last year, I'd think only a masochist would want to deal with that. Also I'm pretty sure the $97 per day don't include parking fees, which makes that a pretty senseless comparison

You're assuming a couple with three kids wants to bike from SoHo to the Cloisters with their shopping bags.

Versus renting a car? You don't have to deal with parking. I haven't spent much time in NYC in years, but I'm guessing the parking situation hasn't improved.

Yeah if it hasn't completely changed in the last year, I'd think only a masochist would want to deal with that. Also I'm pretty sure the $97 per day don't include parking fees, which makes that a pretty senseless comparison

You're assuming a couple with three kids wants to bike from SoHo to the Cloisters with their shopping bags.

"I have found a situation to which this is not a solution! ergo IT IS BAD!"

Here in Dublin its paid for by JCDecaux aswell, 30 min free trips for €10 a year. It works out quite well and apparently is the most successful scheme of its kind http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... ire-schemeThey appear to have figured out how to discourage people from vandalising the bikes or throwing them into either the canals or rivers around the city.

You're assuming a couple with three kids wants to bike from SoHo to the Cloisters with their shopping bags.

And you're assuming that someone whose doctor has told him he has to cycle at least 15km per day would want to use the car to get around!

Is the argument really "I can think of some scenarios where this service wouldn't be useful, so it can't make sense at all"? Nobody says this will replace cars completely, but in my own experience from Europe those services are extremely useful in many situations.

Rewind. Bike rental is $97 for five hours. You are about to come to Manhattan for 5 days.

Step 1. Go on Craigslist and have your friend pick up 5 bicycles for $97/each.

Step 2. At the end of each day of your trip, if your bike isn't stolen, give a bike to some poor inner city kid.

Step 3. ??

Step 4. Profit.

I think you're missing the point. The $97/day is a deterrent from keeping the bike for the whole day. For the first 30 minutes, its free with unlimited rides for the day (with a $9.95/day or $25/7 days). So, if the "Bloom" bike is ubiquitous enough, then if you want to ride somewhere, you go out to the street, grab one, ride where ever you need to go and then drop it off when you get there. When you need to leave, you grab another one and go where ever you need to go. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So, if I'm going to Manhattan for five days, its $25/7 days to use the "Bloom" bikes. As long as I don't think in terms of keeping the bike for a full day, rather just use it for each distinct journey, then it will cost me...$25 for 5 days.

I rented a bike for $15/5 hours the last time I visited Vancouver. It's not like it'd be easier to shlep my own bike, plus driving around the city to see the seawall and Stanley Park is entirely wrongheaded. I could see people in a tiny Manhattan apartment getting a year pass just so they can pick up a decent bike at the curb and drop it off outside their work, rather than carry it up and down buildings every day, plus the extra space it takes up. It would be peanuts, and certainly cheaper than taxis and subway passes.

To those who say buy a bike, bike theft is a big problem, 97$ a year is optimistic. It is nice not having to worry about it. You also need to commit to using your own bike all day, whereas with bike sharing you can just drop it off and walk whenever you want.

My biggest beef in Toronto at least is that they don't shuffle the bikes enough, the square that the New York system will have them in will inevitably have all the stations on the outskirts full and the inner ones deserted.

Their cell phone app, which is necessary to find a station with spaces, is also a huge piece of crap.

All of this. I would add that Toronto loves dumping tons of salt on the roads in winter, which makes maintaining my own bike if I ride it year-round a real hassle--with Bixi I let someone else worry about that.

Bixi's cell phone "app" (if you can call it that) certainly is crap, but there are unofficial apps out there. I use Biximo and love it (it's also supposed to work for other bike-sharing systems).

Rewind. Bike rental is $97 for five hours. You are about to come to Manhattan for 5 days.

Step 1. Go on Craigslist and have your friend pick up 5 bicycles for $97/each.

Step 2. At the end of each day of your trip, if your bike isn't stolen, give a bike to some poor inner city kid.

Step 3. ??

Step 4. Profit.

I think you're missing the point. The $97/day is a deterrent from keeping the bike for the whole day. For the first 30 minutes, its free with unlimited rides for the day (with a $9.95/day or $25/7 days). So, if the "Bloom" bike is ubiquitous enough, then if you want to ride somewhere, you go out to the street, grab one, ride where ever you need to go and then drop it off when you get there. When you need to leave, you grab another one and go where ever you need to go. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So, if I'm going to Manhattan for five days, its $25/7 days to use the "Bloom" bikes. As long as I don't think in terms of keeping the bike for a full day, rather just use it for each distinct journey, then it will cost me...$25 for 5 days.

Fair enough. If you watch the meter. And it's "ubiquitous enough". Or you could just buy a bike on Craigslist and when you're done throw it off the Empire State building.

The massive advantage to these systems is that when you get where you're going, you just dock the bike and walk away. You don't have to find a place to lock it up, you don't have to worry about it being stolen, if you get too drunk to ride home and need to take a taxi you don't have to come back and fetch it, if you're biking to the subway you don't have to bring the bike on the subway with you. Heck, when you get off the subway you can hop on another bike!

This. I live a 10-15 minute walk from certain subway lines, and I'm going to have a bikeshare station 2 min away. Without having to worry about locking up, taking the same line back, etc., this brings those lines a lot closer. Likewise, if I'm out and need to hop crosstown, a bike will beat the bus/taxi any day.

What part of renting and parking a car when you have a family is far less masochistic than renting dingus bikes can you not comprehend?

The part where you're the only one who throws in some specific scenario. Nobody has ever denied that there are situations where a car is advantageous, that doesn't change the fact that there are lots of other scenarios.

I also don't start talking about people without driver's licenses and why cars are completely useless therefore - because that would totally miss the point.